The present invention relates to color separation condition selecting means for a picture scanning and recording machine such as a color scanner and a color facsimile, and more particularly relates to means for selecting color separation conditions such as a highlight point, a shadow point, gradation control, color correction, under color removal, sharpness control, and so forth, to be set up to the picture scanning and recording machine.
In a conventional color scanner, when an original picture is color-separated, since color separation conditions depend on color balance condition of an original picture to be color-separated, highlight and shadow densities, and so forth, together with demands of clients, the color separation conditions are usually set up according to the operator's experiences and skills by adjusting dials of the color scanner.
However, the setup of the color separation conditions concerning the demands of the clients, seasonable objects such as autumn tints and cherry blossoms, memorial objects such as skin color of human being, grass blades and the sky, and the like, is very difficult, and therefore, in practice, the color separation conditions are set up under observing a monitor such as a CRT display in which the output reproduction pictures of the color scanner are displayed.
Further, unexpected reproduction pictures are often obtained by the misjudge or the mistake of the operator, difference of characteristics of each color scanner, and so forth.
In order to remove such disadvantages and inconveniences and to minimize the manual operation of the operator, color separation condition selecting means has been developed. In this case, the color separation condition data of each original picture is input to a computer which performs an arithmetic operation to output the color separation conditions, and then the dials for the color separation condition control of the color scanner are adjusted manually or automatically depending on thus the obtained color separation conditions.
This color separation condition selecting means is effective. However, this means is generally large-scaled and hence expensitive and costly. A relatively small-sized and low-priced means of this kind is disclosed in Japanese patent Laying-Open specification No. 55-79448 (Japanese patent application No. 53-155954). This means is efficacious for setting up the color separation conditions and is small and low-priced, but it still uses a micro computer.